


something only light can give you

by halfwheeze



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: AU of Descendants 2, Bisexual Ben (Disney: Descendants), F/M, Getting Together, Getting to Know Each Other, M/M, Multi, POV Ben (Disney: Descendants), Post Bal Break Up, Sweet Gil (Disney: Descendants)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-19
Updated: 2019-02-19
Packaged: 2019-10-31 10:03:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17847314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfwheeze/pseuds/halfwheeze
Summary: uma wonders what light can possibly give her when she already has her boys.ben gives her an answer.





	something only light can give you

**Author's Note:**

> this was all written in one sitting, so let me know if there's any issues!
> 
> hope you enjoy!

"What has light ever done for me, King Ben?" Uma asks, vitriol leaking into her saccharine sweet displeasure, and she looks out to see Harry and Gil speaking quietly, seeming to have gotten distracted. "Darkness gave me them," she says, and the two of them turn to her, coming at her quiet call. Gil tips his face downward to her's and puts their foreheads together for just a moment, a kind of affection that Ben doesn't understand, but he thinks he wants to. Harry has a hand on both Uma and Gil for a moment, doing something that Ben can't see him from his angle before he's pulling away. He says something to Uma, but between the fact that it's half whispered and in Harry's accent, Ben can't hope to understand. 

"What can light give me when I already have them?" Uma reiterates as Gil and Harry take their leave, Harry dragging Gil by the hand. Ben is silent for a moment, contemplating, before he can come up with an offer. 

"What if the light could give you me?" he asks, and he's not surprised when Uma just tilts her head. "A fourth to your trio, a kingdom that has to accept you, another loyal friend, if not a partner," he offers, nearly wincing at how he sounds, but. He's just lost Mal, and he wants something so sure as Uma is with Harry and Gil, wants to be a part of something like that. Uma would make an excellent queen, much more prepared for leadership than Mal ever was, though that isn't to say that Ben doesn't still love her. No, there will always be a part of Ben that loves Mal, he thinks. He just wants to see if there's part of him that can love Uma, Gil and Harry as well. 

"You would want us?" Uma asks. She sounds not like a fierce ship captain, but like a confused little girl. Ben's heart breaks for how easily she is made insecure, and he wishes his hands were not tied just so he could hold her. Uma shakes her head as if to clear it and then bangs the hilt of her sword on the wall. For a moment, Ben is worried that he went too far, that she couldn't possibly want him. Instead, it seems to be some sort of signal, and Harry comes rushing back into the room. 

"Aye?" he asks, sounding slightly out of breath. He still looks like the calm, cool and collected (if slightly off his rocker) pirate that Ben has grown used to in the last couple of hours, and he looks at Uma like she hung the moon. Uma looks at him in much the same way and Ben  _ aches.  _ He wants something of their peace, of the way that they hang off of each other without touching at all. 

“Auradon. A fourth. Tell Gil or go with the plan?” she asks him shortly, her eyes darting from Harry to Ben for only a second before returning. Harry looks just as startled as Uma was, and Ben wonders when the last time someone wanted them was. He wonders if he’s the first to say it so plainly. Harry looks at Ben and the insecurity, the worries in this mad pirate are so much more little one than warrior, so much more sadness than anger. Ben wants to sweep them up and put them in Auradon blues, wants to teach Harry his numbers and let Uma sleep through the night and introduce Gil to his dad. 

“He - you want us? Not fuckin’ with us or anythin’? You  _ really  _ want us? You shouldn’ just say that - we’ll let ye go anyway, we’re not actually gonna kill ya if Mal doesn’ turn up with the wand. I’s just a way to scare her. We won’ hurt ye. You don’ have to pretend,” Harry rambles. Ben had already thought that the threat on his person was a bluff, but it’s so different to see the way that Harry stumbles over his words, the way that Harry so obviously distances himself from what could be a source of hurt. Ben wants to hold Harry’s face, to make him see all of the ways that Ben is already falling. 

“I want to try, Harry. I want to try wanting you, and having the three of you in my home, safe from harm, never having to fight for anything. I want you to feel safe,” Ben says, level where his voice wanted to shake, still where his hands wanted to twitch. Not that he could move much anyway. 

“I’ll grab Gil. Untie him?” Harry phrases the request as a question, letting Uma take lead on whether Ben will be untied or not. As soon as Harry turns his back, Uma makes quick work of the rope, slicing it through with her sword and catching him by the shoulder as he stumbles. He leans against her for a moment before getting his feet back under him, a massive feat that he only completes as Harry and Gil come rushing back in. 

“He’s untied?” Gil asks, head tilted and adorable, and Ben wants to keep him safe. He sees the way that Harry and Uma naturally close ranks around their soft third, the way that they protect him from disappointment and hurt by taking it themselves. Harry slips an arm around Gil’s waist and pulls the other boy to lean against him, which Gil of course does naturally. Harry looks at Ben expectantly. 

“Tell him what you told us, your ‘ighness,” Harry says. The way that he says it is half threat and half hope, like he’s waiting for Ben to disappoint him, but just barely wishing he won’t. Ben pulls up a smile for Gil’s pretty eyes and he wants to reach out, but he knows Isle kids. Isle kids see reaching out and they see the threat of violence, the threat of worse things, and Ben will not scare these ones. He’s learned. 

“I want to… give the three of you a fourth to your trio. I want to keep you safe. I want to… want you. I want to be with you. Bring the three of you, the rest of your crew, back to Auradon with me,” he explains badly, stumbling over himself in a way that is very unbecoming of a new King. The gobsmacked expression only lasts a moment before Gil breaks into a smile so wide it’s fit to split his face right open, and Ben understand Harry and Uma. He would protect that smile to the ends of the Earth as well if he was able. Maybe, someday, they’ll trust him to do the same. 

“Has anyone kissed him yet? Because I totally have dibs. Not that you’re a thing people can call dibs on! But I totally have dibs,” Gil claims, excited. Ben laughs and Harry and Uma look to him with a guarded expression that quickly turns into cautious fondness at Ben’s delight. He makes a  _ come here  _ gesture at Gil. 

“You can definitely call dibs, and I don’t mind if you kiss me. I would love if you did,” Ben says, putting a hand on Gil’s waist as the boy comes into Ben’s space. This isn’t how kings are meant to behave. Kings are meant to have their first kiss on their wedding day, even if Ben already had his with Audrey, he is not meant to let boys kiss him on ships with witnesses and a plan to keep doing so in the future. Gil is soft, careful as he takes Ben’s mouth with his own, almost shy in a way before it all seems to come down. Then, the kiss turns into a warm thing, something that has Gil holding the back of Ben’s head, holding him in. Ben’s hands end up on Gil’s back, holding him there. 

“Uma was the first to kiss Harry, and Harry was the first to kiss me,” Gil provides afterward, pressing another kiss to Ben’s forehead. Ben likes the way that Gil and Harry almost make him feel small, while Uma would not look amiss curled against his chest. Ben is awash with fondness, and so he wants to know everything about each of them, everything there is to know at all. 

“Tell me about yourselves.” 

The four of them talk for hours, beginning in the very misty beginning of the morning and rambling on while several pirates bring them food, seemingly completely unbothered by the sudden integration of the king of Auradon in their ranks. Ben does not catch the fierce looks that Uma and Harry both throw with one of their hands each on his person, Gil’s fingers laced through his. He’s much too caught up in the way that Harry strokes ever so gently down his calf, not to start anything neither of them know each other well enough to finish yet, but just as if it’s something he can’t help. Uma has a hand on the back of his head that feels like ownership, and Ben leans back against it readily. 

She will make a wonderful queen someday. 

They talk forever. Ben hears stories that sound like tragedy being told like bar brawl, filled with laughter and the extended references readily explained by people who had been friends their whole lives through. Gil is half laid in his lap by the time that a pirate comes to fetch them, claiming the time aloud. 

“It’s 11:45, Captain,” he informs, bowing quickly and running off to complete some task or another. Uma stands and Ben wants to whine, an impulse that should not come so naturally to him as it does. Gil helps him to stand and then there’s a series of eye contact between Uma and Harry that reads as some sort of silent communication, and Ben wonders how long they were friends before they were lovers. Ben wonders if they would ever call it lovers; Mal said that there isn’t much dating on the Isle, but instead, gang activity. This could count as a sort of gang activity, it occurs to him as Gil’s hand tightens in his. 

“You think you can talk Mal down?” Uma asks, and her voice is so much softer than it was when he first arrived on the ship. She doesn’t particularly sound fond, but the roughness drained out of her voice makes her sound so young. Ben is stricken with the want to hold her again, but he answers her instead. 

“I think so,” he says, because he does not know. He knows that Mal will be somehow convinced that his newfound interest in these three pirates will be like his original interest in her; false, magic in nature, coerced. Instead, he feels more free than he has his entire life through. He’s never felt like this. 

“And you’ll take us back with you?” Harry asks. His voice is so unsure that Ben feels as if he’s about to break, and he lets go of Gil’s hand, stepping forward and into Harry’s space. He holds Harry’s face carefully, as if the rough pirate is made of porcelain. Harry looks startled by the care, and Ben just wants to hold him softer. 

“I promise you, Harry. You will be coming back with me,” he says, placing a gentle kiss to Harry’s mouth. He keeps it chaste, pulling Harry down to meet him more easily as he moves one of his hands up to pet through Harry’s hair. Harry makes the smallest little noise of delicate pleasure, and Ben pulls back, only moving a moment to press a kiss to Harry’s cheek, to Harry’s nose, to Harry’s other cheek. The pirate laughs, but it’s not like Harry is laughing at Ben. Instead, he just looks the prettiest shade of pleased. Ben leaves him with one more kiss, this one on the forehead, and turns back around. 

“You will be coming with me. Auradon will know your names. You will be there,” he says to Uma before he kisses her just so softly as he did Harry. She tries to take it over, to make it some rough thing, but he tilts his face downward more, putting a steadying hand on her chin to tilt her face up. His other hand cups her face and she’s quiet for the rest of the kiss, seemingly satisfied with the sentimental nature of the king. He leaves Uma with a kiss just between her eyes, placed delicately and carefully. He then turns to Gil. 

“I want you to meet my parents. I want them to know you,” he says before Gil, who breaks into a smile filled with awe. Ben pulls him down for a kiss just as soft, but Gil gets his arms around Ben’s waist, hauling him up and twirling him around with reckless abandon, his happiness eaking out with its infectious raucousness. 

“We need to get out to the deck, loves,” Harry reminds them, herding them like farm animals out of the cabin. Gil carries Ben instead of putting him down, making a show of happily swinging with him. Uma follows with a roll of her eyes that Ben can tell is terribly tender, filled with all of the fondness that she then directs at Harry, who wraps an arm around her shoulder as the two of them follow Gil out. Ben laughs and presses a kiss to Gil’s throat, the closest bit of Gil that he can reach, and smiles gleefully as he watches Gil turn a light shade of pink. Gil puts him down and it’s only a moment before Mal and her friends appear. 

“What the fuck?” Carlos asks as soon as he gets into the view of the situation, looking at Ben in particular. Ben knows that his unbound hands and freedom of movement are a cause for confusion, but he’s a bit amused at Carlos’s almost offense, as if it personally offends the former villain that Ben had gotten out of captivity on his own at all. He supposes that the original VK four likely went to a lot of work for whatever plan they had cooked up while he had kicked up his feet and bonded with Harry, Uma and Gil, but the guilt from that is vastly overshadowed by his happiness. 

“They’re coming back with us. They don’t need the wand,” Ben explains without explaining. Mal and company all blink, confused, before there’s a cacophony of noise breaking out in the air all at once. Mal, Carlos, Evie and Jay are all screaming what sounds mostly like profanity, speaking insults upon several of the pirates, but mostly upon Harry and Uma. Gil doesn’t seem to catch any insults at all, if one does not count that he is a pirate. That’s simply just what he is, so Ben doesn’t think of it as so. The pirates whom were not in the room with Ben are all yelling out questions, excitement, old bitterness that Ben is sure that his Captain and First and Second mate will assuage. 

“I’m down,” Lonnie says. It somehow breaks through the layers of noise, and Ben flashes her one of his brightest grins. The party with her turns around and gives her a mixed look of disgust and confusion. “I mean,” she continues, “Why not? We wanted to bring all of the kids over eventually anyway. The pirates are a hell of a way to start.” Three quarters of the four are ready to begin fighting again, but Evie gets a contemplative look. 

“Can we bring Dizzy too? She’s just a kid. And… if we’re bringing all of the pirates, we should figure out the rest too. I’m okay with the pirates if we can get all the kids. Just… two or three pirates and Dizzy for now? Or else your dad will totally freak,” Evie suggests, rambling over herself in the way that she does when she’s speaking in logistics, and Ben feels a burst of affection for her. 

“We can bring your Dizzy, and Harry and Uma and Gil. Okay?” he asks, looking between Evie (who had just earned his favor in a way she may never understand), and his three… partners, as it were. But, Harry is shaking his head, looking fond and yet so tired, so careful. Ben’s shoulders sag without his permission. 

“Yer gonna have to take Gil an’ Uma withou’ me, beastie. Cannae leave the crew withou’ all three of us. When you get the res’ of the pirates, I’ll come. Alright?” he says, sounding as if he’s asking permission, and Ben feels a surge of feelings he didn’t know he could have. Present company be damned, he leans up on Harry’s person, pulling him down for a soft kiss. Harry kisses him back but reluctantly, caring more for the company than Ben could possibly anticipate of a pirate. 

“I’ll come back for you as soon as I can, okay? We all will. We’ll bring you over,” Ben promises, his voice nearly desperate, and Harry nods. Harry nods and trusts him and Ben nearly wants to cry. He wants to kiss Harry again, wants to hold him close, but Carlos steals his attention once again. 

“What the  _ fuck?”  _ Carlos asks again, much more insistent and personally offended this time. Jay and Evie look equally as surprised, though not nearly so offended, and Mal looks as if she is hopelessly trying not to look as if she’s been punched. Ben wants to explain, but the words won’t come to him. Instead, Uma and Gil cross swords in front of his chest, looking as if they’re making a protective X. 

“He asked us,” Gil says, quiet and soft, and Ben wants to kiss him as well. He has always been so naturally affectionate, and he thinks that these three who deserve so much affection for the lives they have lead without it deserve so much as he can give, and so much more besides. It’s Jay who asks now. 

“Asked you what?” 

Uma smiles, and she looks beautiful. 

“He asked us to come with him. He asked me if he could be our fourth,” Uma says, and that seems to strike something in the original four VKs. 

Ben didn’t know, and he won’t know for sometime, but it was exactly the way to ask Uma to accept him as theirs. All protective things on the Isle come in combinations of four: the four VKs, the four greater villains, the four demons that walked the lines of their island, the four pirates that lead Harry’s sister Harriet’s crew. Uma, Harry and Gil had never had a fourth, had never been able to find one that fit, until Ben. Later, when Harry is pressed against his back and Uma is curled against his chest with Gil at her back, Ben will be told this story by a whispered Scottish accent in his ear. 

For now, he just knows that it sways the way that the VKs are looking at his pirates, and that’s all that matters. 

Harry places a kiss on his temple and then gives the three of them a sort of corralling shrug, which seems to just be something Harry does. Where Ben should see a frightening pirate, he sees instead a mother hen, pushing around all of his friends and keeping them on task. Ben is grateful to be a part of that. 

“Let’s go collect Dizzy, then. And give me the wand, won’t you, it’s so weird to have it just out,” Ben says, putting out his hand for Mal to give it to him. Instead, she frowns and snaps it over her knee. 

“It was fake anyway,” she tells him roughly, and then she turns her back. Evie has an arm wrapped around her shoulders almost quicker than humanly possible, and Jay and Carlos close ranks around them. Lonnie follows with a shrug of her shoulders, and Ben follows with Gil and Uma in tow behind them. He wants Harry to come along, but he can see the logic in why the pirate wants to stay. It doesn’t stop him from looking over his shoulder. 

“We’ll be back for him,” he says, not sure if he’s reassuring himself or the pirates on either side of him. Uma grabs his hand, squeezing it, and Gil grabs the other, and it’s more assurance than Ben has ever felt. 

They’ll be back. 

**Author's Note:**

> hope you liked it - comments are appreciated! if you have any prompts, prompt me @halfwheeze on tumblr or in the comments!


End file.
